Broke my own rule

Was talking to a buddy this afternoon. We don’t talk all that often but when we do we tend to catch up. Sometimes that takes a long time, usually when we’re talking I’m home and it’s not unusual for me to have a nice tumbler of Jack Daniels at hand.

Today however, the conversation started while I was on the road and continued after I parked. The next thing I knew I’d walked around a Mall yacking like a lot of those people that irritate the hell out of me.

To all the people in the Mall today, I’m So SORRY!

I was browsing, shopping, and buying things.

It was VERY RUDE of me, to My Friend and also to the OTHER people around me at the mall.

Another issue is that my situational awareness was zero! Someone could have gone all jihad and blown themselves up and I wouldn’t have seen it coming.

In my defense, it was so natural to just keep walking and talking. My Friend and I have spent many happy hours shopping in that mall and it was like he was there.

I found myself commenting on things I encountered just as if he was there. On the one hand it was nice to have a pseudo shopping event. ON the other hand it is a little creepy in retrospect.

Point is, while I bitch about a lot of things, I’m going to do my level best to

A) point out when I do the things I bitch about.

B) try to see the other side of what I’m bitching about.

It’ s unlikely in the future I’ll be giving anyone the stink eye about their walking and talking around the mall, but I maintain that your friends deserve your full attention. Even if they are enjoying the virtual shopping trip.

Humm, perhaps a streaming video / bluetooth headset or HUD that would allow you to share your adventures via your 4G cell phone. If someone makes something like that, You know you heard it here first.